We must restore our place as the leader of the free world. We are going to make America Great again. Cbs news brings you the republican residential debate. Moderator good evening, i am john dickerson. President , the first we are going to hear from the first six men that have to be the next nominee. They are here for their ninth debate. The first in the south primary is a week from today. George washington wrote that the truth will ultimately prevail when there is pain taken to bring it to life. We go to shut it shed light on this as the denton and make their decisions. We start us on stage. [applause] dickerson with us tonight, our retired neurosurgeon ben carson of florida. [applause] senator marco rubio of florida. [applause] Businessman Donald Trump of new york. [applause] senator ted cruz of texas. [applause] former governor jeb bush of florida. [applause] and Governor John Kasich of ohio. [applause] now, as most of you have heard by now, Supreme CourtJustice Antonin Scalia died today at the age of 79. He was the longestserving member of the Court Appointed by president reagan in 1986. Justice scalia was the court leading conservative, and even those you disagree with his opinions regarded him as a brilliant legal scholar. Please join us and the candidates on our state in a moment of silence for Justice Antonin Scalia. Thank you. Well talk with the candidates about Justice Scalia and the road ahead when the debate begins in a moment. Dickerson before we get started, candidate, here are the rules. You have one minute to answer a question and 30 seconds more if we ask a followup. If you are attacked by another candidate you get 30 seconds to respond. Here is how we keep time. After we ask a question you would get a green light. The yellow light means you have 30 seconds left to finish your answer. My time is up, the right turns red. That means please stop talking. If you keep talking you will hear this. [bell] you dont want to hear that. During the is Major Garrett and kimberly suffolk from the wall street journal. Throughcan participate your partnership with twitter. Treat us your comments using the gop debate. Lets begin. The death of Justice Scalia, dr. Trott mr. Trump, i want to start with you. If you were president and had a chance with 11 months to go in would be an abdication to conservatives in particular not to name a conservative justice for the rest of your term . I weretrump if president now, i would certainly want to try and nominate a justice. Im sure frankly, i am absolutely sure president obama will try and do it. I think the senate will be able, mitch and the entire group will be stepping about it. Do something about it. This is a tremendous blow to conservativism, a tremendous blow to our country. Dickerson to be clear, you are ok with the president nominating somebody . Donald trump i think he is going to do it whether i am ok with it or not. T is up to Mitch Mcconnell it is called delay, delay, delay. [applause] dickerson governor kasich, i want to get your thoughts on this. Justice scalia with a real believer in the strict word of the constitution. Harry reid says if we do not fill the vacancy it would be a shameful neglect of one of the senate house additional abilities. Constitutional responsibilities. Amazing, notit is only two minutes after the judge , nine children here and their father did not wake up, his wife is sad. I just wish we had not run so fast into politics. Heres my concern about this. The country is so divided right now, and now we are going to see another partisan fight taking place. I really wish the president would think about not nominating somebody. If he were to nominate, lets have them think somebody that is going to have unanimous approval instead of partisanship. This can happen without a lot of recrimination. I would like the president for first,t the country go we are going to have an election soon. People will understand what is at stake in the election. I believe the president should not move forward. I think we ought to let the next president of the United States decide who is going to run the Supreme Court with a vote of the people. [applause] , you like dr. Carson others put out a statement after the death was announced, and you said the president should delay. You of written a book on the constitution recently. What does the constitution say about whose duty it is to act in this kind of situation . Ben carson the consultation does not address that particular situation, but the fact of the matter is the Supreme Court is obviously a very important part of our governmental system. In our constitution was put in place, the average age of death was under 50. Therefore, the whole concept of Lifetime Appointments for Supreme Court judges in federal court judges was not considered to be a big deal. Obviously, that has changed, it is something that needs to be looked at pretty carefully at some point. We need to start thinking about the divisiveness that is going on in our country. I look at the remarks people made after finding out Justice Scalia had died, and they were truly nasty. We have managed to get to that position, it is a shame. We should be thinking about how we can create healing in this. Right now we are not going to get healing with president obama. It is very clear. [bell] i totally agree that we should not allow a judge to be appointed during his time. [applause] youerson senator rubio, are a lawyer. Can you address the issue of the constitution whether it tells who has the power to appoint Supreme Court justices . Last year, they talked about removing the filibuster for the senate for Supreme Court nominations. You seemed open to that. What is your feeling on that . Marco rubio the me first talk about Justice Scalia, our hearts go out to him. You talk about someone who defended consistently the original meaning of the constitution, who understood it was not to be interpreted based on the fad of the moment, but according to its original meaning. He understood that better than anyone in the history of the republic. Case, independent counsel his dissent is a brilliant piece of work. Number two, i do not believe the president to appoint someone. It has been over 80 years since a lameduck president has appointed a Supreme Court justice. It reminds us how important this election is. Someone on this stage will get to choose the balance of the Supreme Court, and it will begin by feeling this vacancy now. We need to understand the constitution is not a living and breathing document but interpreted as originally meant. [applause] dickerson very quickly, on this specific question you were once in favor of dropping the threshold. Marco rubio no. Dickerson you were never in favor . Marco rubio appellate judges can now be given by supreme majority, but not Supreme Court. I do want that to change. If we were not in charge of the senate, harry and barack obama would ram down our throats liberal justice like the ones he has appointed already. Dickerson all right. Republicantime, president s have pointed justices who have not been real conservatives. Bernie sanders has his litmus test or this. Do you have one . Jeb bush not a specific issues. If i am president , i will nominate people that have a proven record in the judiciary. Have appointed people thinking you can get it through the senate because they did not have a record. The problem is sometimes we are surprised. The simple fact is the next president needs to appoint someone with a proven conservative record similar to Justice Scalia, a lover of liberty. Someone with that philosophy that did not try to rule from the bench, and then fight and fight for the nomination to make sure it passes. Of course the president has every right to nominate Supreme Court justices. I am article to guy. Guy. Rticle ii there should be a consensus orientation on that nomination. There is no doubt in my mind barack obama will not have a consensus pick when he submits that person to the senate. [applause] cruz, the senator constitution says the president with consents from the senate. He does have constitutional power. You dont think he should. Are president , does it begin in Election Year, september, november . Would you abide by that date . Ted cruz we have 80 years of president s not confirming Supreme Court justices in an Election Year. In wereor the ma there any nominated in an Election Year . Fortis, lbj nominated but he was defeated. Dickerson the kennedy confirmed him in 19 ted cruz appointing in this case it is both. Dickerson i just want to get the facts straight for the audience. [booing] ted cruz Justice Scalia was a legal giant. He was somebody i knew for 20 years. He was a brilliant man, faithful to the constitution. He changed the arc of american legal history. His passing tonight, our prayers are with his family and his wife who he adored, his nine children and 36 grandkids. It undermines the stakes of this election. Away from alection Supreme Court that will strike down every case on abortion. Ofy could reports one Justice Scalias seminal decisions on upholding the Second Amendment. They could undermine the religious liberty of millions of americans. The stakes for this year for the senate, the senate needs to stand strong and say we are not going to give up the u. S. Supreme court for a generation by allowing barack obama to make one more liberal appointee, and then for the state of South Carolina, one of the most important judgment for the people of South Carolina to make is who on this date [bell] has the character and strength of resolve to nominate and confirm principal constitutionalists to the court. That is what i will do. [applause] dickerson thank you, senator cruz. Lets move on to National Security. I want to read a quote from secretary robert gates, who served for under eight president s. This is what he said about republican candidates. Part of the concern i have about the campaign is the solutions he offered are so at odds with how the world really works. Mr. Trump, i will start with you. He said you would get up to speed very quickly, you would know more than any of the experts. You have been elected president , it is your first day in the situation room. What do you after National Security experts about the world ask your National Security experts about the world . When do we want to do it and how hard we want to hit. We also need to learn who are allies are. We are spending billions of dollars supporting people we have no idea who they are in syria. Do we want to state that route or go and make something with russia . Ate to say iran, but maybe it was one of the worst deals i ever seen negotiated. A very important [applause] not only a disgrace but an embarrassment. It very important, who are fighting for, what are we doing . We have to rebuild the country, but do not go into iraq, do not hightech iraq. Attack iraq. , but iot a politician said it and i said it loud and clear. And that is what happened. [bell] i also set a check the oil, update the wealth away and keep the oil. They just started listening a few months ago. [applause] dickerson senator rubio, 30 seconds on this, are those the questions you would ask . You what to get on top of what we are doing in the pacific region. Originally in the middle east with a combination of the sunnishiite conflict that iran is trying to establish, and the growing threat of crisis. The third is reinvigorating nato and the europe theater. Vladimir putin is threatening the territory of multiple countries, controlled 20 of georgia and a significant percentage of ukraine. Dickerson let me ask you a followup. [applause] extremists are operating in 40 countries, some 80 are in different degrees of stability. That is the crisis overseas. Barack obama walked into an economic collapse. He faced International Health crises from ebola to zika. There is a lot of opportunity for crisis. What would you point to in your past to show you have been in a crisis and you have been tested when that comes when you are a president . Marco rubio one of the hardest decisions you will ever make in congress is when you are asked to use force. Your putting your name behind military action. Americans lose their lives in uniform. So barack obama said he would not take military action against assad unless authorized. It was hard. You look at the pictures. I thought the same pictures. Saw the same pictures. Little children gas and poisons by their own leaders. , and weg had to happen needed to seek retribution. And i looked at his plan. Barack obamas plan was unbelievably small, and i concluded that would not only help, it would make it worse. To thegoing to stand up United States, survivor strike, and strengthen us. It was difficult, and we only had a few days to look at it. I voted against it. He was the right decision. Dickerson dr. Carson [applause] you said you had more phone calls than anybody up on this stage. When those 2 00 a. M. Phone calls the, you operated on foundation of all the medical work you have done. If you are president s, you would not have the Political Foundation that how did those in space. Helen to those instincts when that comes. Is that a liability . Ben carson let me go back to your first question. Who nominates Supreme Court nominees. There was leftwing media that track to make a hay on that. Thank you for including me in the debate. Two questions already, this is great. [applause] as far those 2 00 a. M. Phone calls are concerned, judgment is what is required. The kinds of things you come up with are sometimes very difficult and very unique. One of the things i was known for is doing things that have not been done before. So no amount of experience really prepares you to do something that has never been done before. But as for judgment comes in. Of the situation we are in right now. We have never been here before with the kinds of threats that pose a real danger to our nation , and it comes in very handy in those situations. Dickerson governor kasich [applause] russia is being credited with bombing u. S. Rebels on behalf of assad. Moved intolso crimea, eastern ukraine. You said you wanted to punch them in the nose. What do you mean . John kasich we have to make it clear to russia what we expect. We need to make clear what we expect. We will arm the folks in ukraine were fighting for their freedom. They deserve it. No ifs, and, or but. Either in the nato countries or similar in sweden, it would be an attack on us. We have an opportunity as americans to put something great together again. Jordananians,dis, we look at europe and france, belgium, britain. Everybody is being threatened by radical islam. We have an opportunity to lead. The back of the matter is the world is desperate for leadership. Sometimes they may make a remark that we dont like, but frankly the world needs us. We have an opportunity to assemble a coalition of civilized people, those who respect civilization, the rights of women, the right to protest, we will reassert our leadership across the globe and make sure this century will be the best weve ever seen. [applause] , yourson governor bush said defeating isis requires defeating assad. You also put us in conflict with russia, a country that supports assad. So you think he is there to stay . That is the problem. The lack of leadership by barack obama, john kerry, Hillary Clinton, thinking this works. It is complete unmitigated disaster. To have russia influence in syria makes things harder. But he to destroy isis and dispose of assad to create a stable syria so that is not a breeding ground for a islamic jihadism. M russia is attacking our team, what we have been training and supporting. It is absolutely ludicrous to suggest russia could be a positive partner in this. They are on the run. Every time we step back, they are on the run. The question you asked, what you atuld do, 13 things wh three things, the sequester should be reversed. I would create a policy of containment as it relates to irans ambitions to make clear that we are not going to allow for iran to do what it is doing, which is look towards nuclear weapons. Though the be the foremost things we need to do. [bell] [applause] trump, you said you could get along with Vladimir Putin. You did at one point. Donald trump i like it so far. Jeb is so wrong. He is absolutely [booing] that is jebs special interest lobbyists talking. [booing] jeb is so wrong. Youve got to fight isis first. Have russia, iran, and syria. You have to knock out isis. These are animals. Knock them off. You decide what to do after. You cant fight two wars at one time. If you listen to him and some of the folks that ive been listening to, we have been in the middle east for 15 years and we have not won anything. We have spent 5 trillion with thinking like that. [applause] [bell] is you graham, something. We spent booing] i only tell the truth, lobbyists. We need to rebuild our country, rebuild our infrastructure. Listen to that, you will be there for another 50 years. Fact the very basic jeb bush the very basic fact is Vladimir Putin will not be an ally of the noted date. United states. They are attacking the troops we are supporting. We need to create a coalition, Led Coalition to destroy isis. You cant do that with a thought in power. Donald